{"id":1048761,"date":"2026-09-07T12:02:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048761\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T12:02:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:02:59","slug":"operation-midway-blitz-one-year-later-chicago-forges-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048761\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Midway Blitz, one year later: Chicago forges on"},"content":{"rendered":"

People in Little Village used to go to Baltazar Enr\u00edquez\u2019s office to get their whistles<\/a>. He estimates he handed out thousands last year during the immigration raids that roiled Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.<\/p>\n

When they walk in now, it\u2019s not whistles they\u2019re after. It\u2019s empathy. Someone to listen. A moment to vent or to grieve in the aftermath of what the administration of President Donald Trump touted as Operation Midway Blitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we heal?\u201d Enr\u00edquez, the president of the Little Village Community Council, asked recently. \u201cThat\u2019s the part we\u2019re learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA still image from a video posted to Facebook shows Leodegario Mart\u00ednez Barradas, detained by ICE agents on Sept. 7, 2025, in the Archer Heights neighborhood. (Gissele Garc\u00eda)<\/p>\n

It has been a year since the blitz commenced with the detainment of a man selling flowers in nearby Archer Heights. What began there<\/a>, on the corner of South Archer Avenue and South Pulaski Road, with Leodegario Mart\u00ednez Barradas dropping his flowers while federal agents handcuffed him and led him away, quickly spread throughout Chicago.<\/p>\n

It left tamale carts deserted. Landscaping equipment abandoned. Cars on the side of the road, with keys still in the ignition. People, gone.<\/p>\n

For 64 days<\/a>, the city and its suburbs came to be under siege. For 64 days, starting with the detainment of the flower vendor on Sept. 7, 2025, and ending in November with Border Patrol agents posing for a mocking class picture in Millennium Park, their leader Gregory Bovino in the middle, the federal government carried out a militarized immigration enforcement operation under the guise of making Chicago safer.<\/p>\n

How is it, then, that a year later, people can feel so unsafe?<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security asserted that it would target \u201cthe worst of the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOperation Midway Blitz achieved what Chicago\u2019s sanctuary politicians have refused to do for decades: decrease crime and remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who put the American people in danger,\u201d a spokesperson wrote in an email. The department highlighted 10 detained immigrants who had criminal convictions ranging from murder and sexual assault to shoplifting and driving under the influence.<\/p>\n

But of the nearly 3,800 booked into a Chicago-area immigration detention facility, more than 2,200 had no criminal convictions or pending charges. Only 15% had a criminal conviction, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data obtained by the research group Deportation Data Project. On average during the blitz, Chicago-area ICE agents detained 35 people per day with no convictions or pending charges, while booking just one person per day who\u2019d been convicted of a violent felony or sex crime.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

All the while, the blitz attacked the spirit of a proud city. It also awakened it, said Gov. JB Pritzker.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are not protesters. They don\u2019t normally want to go out and stand up to authority,\u201d he said in an interview with the Tribune. \u201c\u2026 And I think all of that\u2019s changed. People are ready. People are more ready. They\u2019ve seen themselves to be like, \u2018Oh, we are the force that can push back peacefully on these ICE agents.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left behind is a city on guard. There was no end to the blitz, not in any kind of official way, and so the threat of it lingers like the fear it inflicted. In Belmont Cragin, people keep their shades drawn. They ignore doorbells. In Pilsen, volunteers still pass out whistles.<\/p>\n

Others decided to leave the United States for good.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The intersection of South Archer Avenue and South Pulaski Road in the Archer Heights neighborhood on Aug. 28, 2026. The corner is where Leodegario Mart\u00ednez Barradas, a flower vendor, was the first person detained in Chicago during Operation Midway Blitz on Sept. 7, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Last year, no one requested assistance to return to Mexico, said Reyna Torres Mendivil, consul general of the Mexican consulate in Chicago. This year, they are seeing approximately 20 cases per month. The true extent of reverse migration could be higher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are families who tell us they need urgent help because they are returning to Mexico together,\u201d Torres Mendivil said. \u201cThose are the cases we are able to document and support, but knowing an exact total is impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrollers who spent much of last fall tracking Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol haven\u2019t stopped patrolling. The longer term reckoning, for many places and many people, has only barely begun.<\/p>\n

In Little Village, one of the city\u2019s most historic Latino neighborhoods, Enr\u00edquez has tried to guide some measure of recovery. On the second and third Sunday of every month, the community council hosts a desah\u00f3gate. The most literal English translation is to \u201cundrown yourself.\u201d The desah\u00f3gates have included dance lessons. An art class. Yoga.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not really healing the psychosis. The PTSD,\u201d Enr\u00edquez said, and on the window outside his office there\u2019s still a sign advertising free whistles.<\/p>\n